Full respect. An Isonic 122/133 with a 7.5-8.5 actually requires a high level of skill to get the best out of it. Its big kit and I could never get my head around it but I can see many people are stoked on it.

If you do free-style and high wind sailing you will be surprised by how easy it is to go out with a relatively big rig and a big board. I am not suggesting a formula + 10-12 sail, but a good size floaty board (a futura 133 with a soft sail, maybe a hot sail superfreak, would do as well), give it a try with a rental ... and have fun with the Kite, I have been tempted a few times myself.

Regarding kiting safety: danger is not a reason not to pick up a sport (ask mountain climbers), but maybe a combination of industry advertisement and a learning curve that is relatively quick results in a lot of "fools" out there: many kiters seem to have no idea about the risks they put themselves and other people in.

Personal experience? One not particularly dramatic: end of the season, Crissy Field, I am in the water to my thighs, with the wind dying, considering what to do next. I decide to stop for a while, prepare to flip the sail to get off the water, and I hear a wooooosh, I stop the sail, have not even time to look around and this woman on a kite sails by between me and the beach: in at most a yard of space. I don't even swear, but I think what kind of lesson would have been learned if I had flipped the sail and got this woman square, bringing her down with kite, my sail, board attached maybe a piece of myself ... some of it dragged for a few hundred yards on the beach after a 15 miles/hour impact!